Today's Reading: Job, Chapter Thirty-six
Elihu definitely ascribes to the sovereignty of God or the idea that God is totally in charge of all the universe. The difficulty of this stance is that sometimes human beings act in ways that move against God's design. Other things happen due to accident or simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
An Armenian or Wesleyan view of God is that God returns free will to humanity through prevenient grace as a way to allow us to be more than puppets on a string. This helps explain at least the human activity that is harmful to others: it is a person misusing their free will rather than operating in some greater design that we just don't understand.
Elihu mentions that God doesn't despise anyone - no one is worth the negative emotion - but rather God just eliminates those who aren't playing ball! We continue to see the same transactional faith stance from Elihu - the good are rewarded and the wicked are punished. The entire book of Job seems to be a critique of this stance.
I do kind of like the statement that "the godless in heart cherish anger." And of course, they die in their youth and their lives end in shame. Does this mean that everyone who is old is sweet and happy?
Of course, we know this isn't true. One thing that disproves this is that plenty of faithful people cherish anger in their hearts from time to time. We don't do it on our best days, but there are times...
Maybe what we could take from this is that when we are cherishing anger in our hearts, we are acting as if we were godless.
I believe that this could have been a word to those in exile. They needed not to give in to the temptation to give up their faith. They would have had ample reason. Some today might say that Elihu's speech turns toward a toxic positivity. It is not kind and a little tone-deaf to the people suffering. Would the people of God be able to hear it?
Are we?
On the days that we are having difficulty - the days we are cherishing anger - maybe we can't hear it. But maybe we need to hold it out there as a high bar to clear. So that tomorrow, we can get over it.
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| It feels good on the days we clear it! |
With the complexity of all that it means to be human, I recognize that there are days of great faithfulness and there are days of lesser faithfulness and there are days we would rather not remember. The Christian walk recognizes these as we confess our sins. And it helps us to have more days where faithfulness is the norm. I hope that your faith is helping you get over the bar more often.
Prayer for the day:
Lord, we pray not for tranquility, nor that our tribulations may cease; we pray for your spirit and your love, that you grant us strength and grace to overcome adversity; through Jesus Christ. Amen.
Prayer by Girolamo Savonarola, Italy, 15th Century
Photo by Steven Pisano via Flickr.com. Used under the Creative Commons license.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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